Jackson reveals that some elements of Guillermo del Toro's style and DNA are retained in the film plus it's also revealed that Smaug will feature heavily in the second film.

JACKSON: "The Hobbit is very much a children's book and The Lord of the Rings is something else; it's not really aimed at children at all. I realized the characters of the dwarves are the difference. Their energy and disdain of anything politically correct brings a new kind of spirit to it. And that's why I thought, OK, this could be fun!"

If you though Joss Whedon had it tough spreading screentime amongst his ensemble cast, Peter Jackson has it even tougher. Here, Jackson briefly comments on that challenge:

JACKSON: "That was something I worried about. I imagined 13 guys with long hair and beards and I thought, 'How are we ever going to know which dwarf is which? It's an ensemble from hell really. I thought nine members of the Fellowship was a problem; but here, with Bilbo and Gandalf, we've got 15. It's working out fine though. The dwarves give it a kind of childish, comedic quality that gives us a very different tone from The Lord of the Rings."

Jackson wants audiences to know that despite some differences, he's striving to keep the same feel from the LOTR trilogy:

JACKSON: "I want it to seem like we've gone back on location into Middle-earth; that these two movies feel like they belong at the beginning of the other three. We're the same filmmakers going into the same world."

Talking about original director Guillermo del Toro, Total Film reports that Jackson stated that the "films do retain some aspects del Toro's style and DNA, but that they have largely been overshadowed by Jackson's own attempts to replicate his approach to The Lord of the Rings ten years ago."

Jackson's wife and writing partner Fran Walsh reportedly stated that the second movie will be primarily focused with "war, madness and dragon rage." She explains:

FRAN WALSH: "We always saw The Hobbit more in the golden light of a fairytale. It's more playful. But by the time you get to the end, Tolkien is writing himself into that place where he can begin that epic journey of writing LOTR, which took, as he put it, his life's blood. All those heavier, darker themes which are so prevalent in the later trilogy start to come into play."

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